Here is my situation. My wife and I have had a 10 acre piece of property in California now for 2 years. There are no utilities or septic, just Eucaliptus trees LOTS of Eucaliptus trees. We have plans to homestead the place. We just hit our first major road block.

We have had the power company come out and look around so that they can engineer how to bring in the power. Things seem to be going well so we sheduled our well driller to start drilling. I started scrambling around to find a generator that will power the 5hp deep well pump so I can get water to build the road until permanent power comes in. The lock rotor amp rating is 121 amps to get the pump started, 29kw. Well needless to say the generator is out of the price range so I called the well driller and asked them to put in a 3hp pump with a lock rotor of 82 amps, 19.68kw. I found a 20kw right about $6K, still very pricey!!

Here is my road block. The other day I found out the real estate person for the power company can't get right-of-way for them to bring us power through our neigbors property. So I started looking into solar power and found out I can have a small power consuming pump with a large storage resivour(??) and a pressure pump on the outlet of the large tank. (I wish I new about this option 2 or 3 months ago)

Our well is drilled aproximately 350 feet with 8.375 inside diameter casing about 250 deep. Since it seems that I can't get power I will be doing the solar option and doing this off of the grid. I need help with planning my well problem. Right now I need to to be able to pump water so I build my road. Right now I am leaning to a small a/c pump so I can power it with a smaller generator than the ones I have been looking at and filling a super capacity tank with a booster pump to give water pressure from the larger tank.

Right now I live about an hours drive from the property and have concerns about leaving valuable equipment behind when I go home. I will need thousands of gallons to build the road for dirt compacting.

I would start with a 12v or 24v dc pump on a solar panel set up to pump when the sun was shining into your storage tank. And I would go with an amorphous type of panel since you have to leave it unprotected and boys with guns love to shoot solar panels. Then just have a less expensive small generator to run power tools for building. Running a genset to pump water can get very expensive in a big hurry. If you can put the solar panel in an inconspicuous spot it will be less likely to get stolen.

Backwoods Solar is where I would start for equipment. They sell pumps and panels. I know a lot of people will try to find cheaper stuff, but I have dealt with them over a period of yrs and have been happy with the service. They also seem to be in it for the long haul, unlike a lot of solar companies.

Go online and check out Simple Pump. I have one on my acreage and it is doing
a great job. 12 volt and runs off a battery. 4 to 5 gallons a minute and you can
set it to a pressure switch and tank. The only thing to wear out on the pump is
3 o-rings.
Hope this helps.
Jim

I'd suggest you look at the Real Goods website...they are located over in Ukiah. Especially check out the Solar Jack pump. I've got gravity water, so no direct knowledge here, but if this pump can't help call their information line...they have people who can help you get water. Schaffer is an old hippie so he knows about the sort of problems you are facing.

Most around here use Air Pressure to Pump their Water,they use a Small Gas Engine to run Compresser,to fill a Largs Propane Tank with Air it will last all day before they have to start building up pressure again.

Maybe some on here have more on how these Pumps work but I know they use them on Deep Wells.

I am not sure how deep the static water level is. I want to say 160' but I don't remember. I will be calling the Driller tomorrow with several question and that will be one of them. Thanks for bringing that up.

At only 350 in depth I don't see why a simple 1.5 hp on 1 inch pipe would not suppy all the water you need. At 290 ft I have a 1 hp with no problems and pump up to a thousand gallons a day at times for livestock.

I remember a old Mother Earth News story of a guy that got a belt drive generator and used a submerge pump on 220 volts to fill a homeade water tower. He powered it with a 4 cyl car engine. While it made power to pump water it also charged a battery bank so he got double duty from his run time. Just an idea.

We were able to find another, longer, way to bring in power instead of going through our neighbors property.

I did end up buying a 1/2hp A/C pump and everything I need to get water out of the hole along with a generator. I believe I should be getting near 7 gpm pumping into a non-pressurized tank. With all of these items it was still a little less than buying a D/C unit with panels or batteries. I still would have needed to buy a generator to run power tools and the AC in the camper.

When I complete the system with a inground cistern and pressurized tank I will be looking at the D/C booster units. Then I will be able to work it into the loan since I plan on installing solar panles too. I sure would like to see the meter spinning backwards. I really liked the idea of a water tower, but I need to have indoor fire sprinklers since I am in a rural area and need about 40gpm at 40psi for a minimum of 10 minutes. At .43 psi per elevated foot that would make my water tower about 100' up. So that is out of the equation.

Anyway here is what I found out from the driller:
Drilled 370' deep
8" steel cased to 260' deep
Static water about 175' deep
Set the pump 210' deep

Hi again! So you will be on the grid afterall? That should solve all your problems I would think. I was wondering just how you were going to go about getting a loan to build a house while off the grid. Many have tried and few have succeeded! It seems it is almost impossible to mortage a place with off the grid power sources etc. good luck and i am glad you got the well problem solved! and thanks for the prices, ours here in montana is going to be 22.00 per foot including casing for 300 foot well!